Computer-aided evaluation of inflammatory changes over time on MRI of the spine in patients with suspected axial spondyloarthritis

Computer-aided evaluation of inflammatory changes over time on MRI of the spine in patients with suspected axial spondyloarthritis: A feasibility study

Aizenberg, Evgeni (Leiden University Medical Center)
van den Berg, Rosaline (Leiden University Medical Center)
Ez-Zaitouni, Zineb (Leiden University Medical Center)
van der Heijde, Désirée (Leiden University Medical Center)
Reijnierse, Monique (Leiden University Medical Center)
Dzyubachyk, Oleh (Leiden University Medical Center)
Lelieveldt, B.P.F. (TU Delft Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatics; Leiden University Medical Center)

2017

Background: Evaluating inflammatory changes over time on MR images of the spine in patients with suspected axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA) can be a labor-intensive task, requiring readers to manually search for and perceptually align a set of vertebrae between two scans. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of computer-aided (CA) evaluation of such inflammatory changes in a framework where scans from two time points are fused into a single color-encoded image integrated into an interactive scoring tool. Methods: For 30 patients from the SPondyloArthritis Caught Early (SPACE) cohort (back pain ≥ 3 months, ≤ 2 years, onset < 45 years), baseline and follow-up MR scans acquired 9-12 months apart were fused into a single color-encoded image through locally-rigid image registration to evaluate inflammatory changes in 23 vertebral units (VUs). Scoring was performed by two expert readers on a (-2, 2) scale using an interactive scoring tool. For comparison of direction of change (increase/decrease) indicated by an existing reference, Berlin method scores ((-3, 3) scale) of the same MR scans from a different ongoing study were used. The distributions of VU-level differences between CA readers and between the CA and Berlin methods (sign of change scores) across patients were analyzed descriptively. Patient-level agreement between CA readers was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: Five patients were excluded from evaluation due to failed vertebrae segmentation. Patient-level inter-reader agreement ICC was 0.56 (95% CI: 0.22 to 0.78). Mean VU-level inter-reader differences across 25 patients ranged (-0.04, 0.12) with SD range (0, 0.45). Across all VUs, inter-reader differences ranged (-1, 1) in 573/575 VUs (99.7%). Mean VU-level inter-method differences across patients ranged (-0.04, 0.08) with SD range (0, 0.61). Across all VUs, inter-method differences ranged (-1, 1) in 572/575 VUs (99.5%). Conclusions: Fusion of MR scans of the spine from two time points into a single color-encoded image allows for direct visualization and measurement of inflammatory changes over time in patients with suspected axSpA.

Axial Spondyloarthritis
Comparative visualization
Image registration
Inflammation
Magnetic resonance imaging

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4db68141-23a3-4835-9588-e1cda15b44a8

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12880-017-0226-4

1471-2342

BMC Medical Imaging, 17 (1), 1-9

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 Evgeni Aizenberg, Rosaline van den Berg, Zineb Ez-Zaitouni, Désirée van der Heijde, Monique Reijnierse, Oleh Dzyubachyk, B.P.F. Lelieveldt